Wednesday, May 5, 2010

This week, I had an opportunity to hear stories of Atlanta from back in the day from a man that was raised in the Capital View/Perkerson Park community.

In his day, every resident depended on the community; every resident depended on each other. It was safe. There was pride in ownership of the community and it was loved by all its members. At the center of it all?

Athletics. In his day, the programs were offered and run by a local church, the "hub" of it all he said. In our day, the church he spoke of no longer exists. The city has recreation programs, but like most municipalities, are strapped for cash. And what's one of the first things to go? You guessed it, athletic/recreation programs.

But L.E.A.D. is there. We serve that same community today. The church may be gone, but the people are still there - the children are still there. And they all want what we have to offer- baseball and an opportunity to make a better life for themselves by using baseball to go to college. L.E.A.D. is positively changing one child at a time, one household at a time. Ironic isn't? Sounds just like the formula for building better communities:-)